Jones is ready to rumble

Albury-based racing driver Brad Jones will begin what he reckons will be the toughest test of his 26-year career in motorsport when he starts his Shell Championship campaign in a week's time.

03 February 2000Bob Jennings

Albury-based racing driver Brad Jones will begin what he reckons will be the toughest test of his 26-year career in motorsport when he starts his Shell Championship campaign in a week's time.

Jones, with nine national championships to his credit in various forms of racing and who will turn 40 this year, will roll out a Ford Falcon for the season's opening meeting at Phillip Island.

"My goal this year is to finish in the top 10 in the championship. I don't think that's being silly or over-ambitious," Jones said this week.

"I'd like to think that once we get a handle on the car and set-up we can make it into the front-runners at some circuits. Even so, until we get on the track and see where the watermark lies, and where we are, we won't know the exact challenge. So it's going to be a big year."

Jones has secured a new sponsor for the effort in OzEmail Internet, and will have one of the teams which will have direct support from Ford.

The Albury-based team, run by brothers Brad and Kim Jones, has taken over the assets of Tony Longhurst's Falcon team, including his car and Level One franchise in V8 Supercar racing.

The team will later build a car of its own, which it will design and develop.

"We've done a huge amount of work on the car. That's kept us off the track but we think we've made a fair bit of progress and found some speed," Jones said.

"Tony usually ran between eighth and fourteenth so that's given us the first target for the season. We'll be testing this week so we're ready to go at Phillip Island."

The Jones team comes to V8 racing after five years of running Audi's official factory team in the Australian two-litre Super Touring series, during which it won two drivers' and two manufacturers' championships.

The team has also won national titles in Production Car, Auscar and Nascar categories.

According to team manager, Kim Jones, the 12-member team will handle all aspect of the V8 Supercar campaign in-house. "We think we've got some new ideas but for the moment we're concentrating on the basics," he said.

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